International

The Minister-President, as the Dutch premier is known, is in Washington from the 5th to the 8th of June. Together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he will be received at the White House. The ministry has a news release about this on its website, the last sentence of which makes it clear why premier Balkenende is really going to the US. He is certainly not going to speak to the outgoing President, but in order to participate in the Bilderberg Conference.

Since 1954 leading figures from politics and business have gathered in the secret Bilderberg Conferences. The first Bilderberg Conference was organised on the initiative of the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in the Bilderberg Hotel in the Dutch town of Oosterbeek. In the past Queen Beatrix has also frequently visited the conferences, which is why a few years ago I put a number of parliamentary questions on the subject of the gatherings. "What is discussed there and who is responsible for what the Queen says?" was what I wanted to know. I have never had an answer which was so empty of content. Because it was a closed meeting, the government did not wish to give a report on it. It is known, however, that the Minister President and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are responsible for Queen's statements at the conference. How can Parliament exercise any control over these matters?

The Bilderberg Conference lasts precisely as long as the premier's visit to the US. The visit to the White House will last at most an hour. Without knowing it, President Bush is being used as a cloak for participation in the secret Bilderberg Conference. Parliamentary Questions on the content of the conference may, however, be put. I have therefore repeated mine, but they have not received an answer. This is truly inappropriate to a democratic country.